TABLE 3.16 Percentages of Patents, Awarded by the U.S. Patent Office, to U.S., EU, and Asian Assignees in Three Areas of Chemical Industry for the Years 1995, 2000, and 2005

Area of Technology

1995

2000

2004

U.S.

EU

Asia

U.S.

EU

Asia

U.S.

EU

Asia

Industrial Separations

55

31

14

53

29

18

56

26

19

Composites

60

13

27

53

18

30

54

18

28

Ceramics

51

22

27

48

22

30

49

18

33

separations, composites, and ceramic materials. These data show a strong U.S. intellectual property position in all three areas of technology.

3.4PRIZES, AWARDS, AND RECOGNITIONS

There are no international prizes or awards, which recognize research contributions in chemical engineering at large, akin to the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Therefore, we cannot use this metric for a direct comparison of U.S. versus non-U.S. contributions in chemical engineering.

However, there is a series of international awards and prizes recognizing research contributions in specific subareas of chemical engineering. In addition, there are national awards open to foreign contestants from several disciplines. The Panel has collected data on the winners for a number of such awards in an effort to assess U.S. leadership in specific subareas of chemical engineering research across disciplines and across geographic regions.

The data suggest the following conclusions:

U.S. chemical engineering researchers have received a significant number of prestigious awards with international competition over a broad range of research subareas; fluid mechanics, catalysis, controlled drug release, bioprocesses, aerosol science and engineering, rheology, reaction engineering, combustion, and materials. These awards seem to confirm earlier observations that breadth and depth (quality) co-exist in U.S. chemical engineering research.

U.S. chemical engineering researchers have been very competitive with researchers from other disciplines, drawing a significant number of U.S. awards in all subareas of chemical engineering from various disciplinary organizations. Again this information confirms earlier observations on the interdisciplinary competitiveness of U.S. chemical engineering researchers.

Citation Manager

"
3 Benchmarking Results: Assessment of U.S. Leadership in Chemical Engineering At Large ."
International Benchmarking of U.S. Chemical Engineering Research Competitiveness . Washington, DC: The National Academies Press,
2007 .